THE US-MEXICO BORDER IN AMERICAN COLD WAR FILM

THE US-MEXICO BORDER IN AMERICAN COLD WAR FILM

SCREENING SPACES Series editor: Pamela Robertson Wojcik Screening Spaces is a series dedicated to showcasing interdisciplinary books that explore the multiple and various intersections of space, place, and screen cultures. Cinema, Gender, and Everyday Space: Comedy, Italian Style Natalie Fullwood The US-Mexico Border in American Cold War Film: Romance, Revolution, and Regulation Stephanie Fuller Movie Towns and Sitcom Suburbs: Building Hollywood s Ideal Communities Stephen Rowley Cinematic Geographies and Multicultural Spectatorship in America Amy Lynn Corbin

The US-Mexico Border in American Cold War Film Romance, Revolution, and Regulation Stephanie Fuller

THE US-MEXICO BORDER IN AMERICAN COLD WAR FILM Copyright Stephanie Fuller 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-53856-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The author has asserted their right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN: 978-1-349-57856-6 E-PDF ISBN: 978-1-137-53560-3 DOI: 10.1057/9781137535603 Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fuller, Stephanie, 1983 The US-Mexico Border in American Cold War Film : Romance, Revolution, and Regulation / by Stephanie Fuller. pages cm. (Screening spaces) Based on the author s thesis (doctoral University of East Anglia. Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes filmography. 1. Mexican-American Border Region In motion pictures. 2. Motion pictures United States History 20th century. 3. Borderlands in motion pictures. 4. Tourism in motion pictures. 5. Immigrants in motion pictures. 6. Aliens in motion pictures. I. Title. II. Title: United States-Mexico border in American Cold War film. PN1995.9.M48F85 2015 791.439658721 dc23 2015015275 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments vii ix Introduction Screening the Spaces of the US-Mexico Border 1 Part I Romance Chapter 1 The Romance of Mexico: Tourists, Fugitives, and Escaping the United States 21 Chapter 2 Mapping Borders and Identity: Representation, Transformation, and Ethnicity 33 Chapter 3 Danger, Disappearance, and the Exotic: American Travelers and Mexican Migrants 51 Part II Revolution Chapter 4 The Revolutionary Politics of Mexico: Individualism, Communitarianism, and Landscape 67 Chapter 5 Territory, Colonialism, and Gender at the American Frontier 81

vi CONTENTS Part III Regulation Chapter 6 Ethnicity, Imperialism, and the Law: Policing Identities at the Border 97 Chapter 7 Border Cities as Contested Space: Postcolonial Resistance in Tijuana 113 Chapter 8 Imperial Journeys and Traveling Shots: Regulation, Power, and Mobility 129 Conclusion Border Film and Border Studies 147 Appendix A: Indicative List of Cold War Border Films 153 Notes 157 Filmography 191 Bibliography 197 Index 225

Figures 0.1 The closing scenes of Stagecoach see an early and iconic border crossing into Mexico 2 1.1 Where Danger Lives puts its protagonists on the road 28 2.1 Signs and symbols explicitly locate audiences in Mexico in Borderline 37 3.1 The colonizing power of maps in Wetbacks 59 4.1 Juaristas are closely connected with the traditional architecture and Mexican landscape in Vera Cruz 77 5.1 Attempts to control and contain Carmelita Carias in Border River 90 6.1 The US-Mexico border fence highlights the entrapment facing Mexican migrant workers in Border Incident 98 7.1 Cars stream across the border into Mexico in The Tijuana Story 119 8.1 The detritus of American capitalist society suffocates the border town of Touch of Evil 144 C.1 Monsters imagines the US-Mexico border of the future 150

Acknowledgments This book is based on research undertaken for my PhD at the University of East Anglia (UEA), which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, studentship award reference AH/I009582/1. I would like to thank the Screening Spaces series editor, Pam Wojcik, for her valuable feedback and guidance on the process of turning my thesis into this book as well as Shaun Vigil, Erica Buchman, and the Palgrave Macmillan team for all their assistance. Many thanks also to my PhD supervisor Mark Jancovich for advice and guidance throughout my time at UEA and to my examiners Peter Stanfield and Tim Snelson for their useful feedback on the thesis. Thanks are also due to Jann Matlock for support with the initial project proposal. I am grateful to the helpful staff at the British Film Institute library and the British Library for all their assistance. I am extremely grateful to Nina Mickwitz and Sophie Halliday for proofreading and providing comments on my thesis in its final stages, and especially for our Thursday night drinks in Norwich. I must also extend heartfelt thanks to a great many friends and family who have given me their support throughout this process. Special thanks to Rachel Eddy, Sarah Ross, and Jo Phillips for regularly hosting me in London, visiting Norwich, and for some brilliant and much-needed holidays! I am also hugely grateful to Maria Thomas for her encouragement and generous advice on all aspects of academic life. Thanks as well to Mat Croft, Tamar Nissin, Eleri Lloyd, and Anthony Lloyd for their friendship and support. Special thanks are due to Matthew Woody for his continuous support and interest in my project, helpful ideas, and moving to Norwich with me. To Sally, Graham, Carrie and Ellie Fuller, and Val and Roy Muscutt, I will always be grateful for your love and encouragement throughout my university career and for all the wonderful visits to Long Buckby, Lincoln, Heacham, and San Felieu.